Congressman admits pork is for buying votes

I received an email this morning from Grover G. Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, urging me to “Take Action Now!” to stop Congress from another pork barrel spending:

“The federal government is currently considering an aid package to assist states impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Such efforts have been abused in the past to shuttle wasteful and unnecessary pork barrel spending completely unrelated to the disaster. Congress must ensure each dollar obligated for hurricane relief actually goes to aiding victims—not to political special interests. This means prohibiting any funds from being used to underwrite the inflated costs of labor agreements.”

Quite simply, the agreement raises spending. Again. Indeed, its passage seems to reaffirm a disturbing truth about today’s Washington: compromises always lead to more spending, and more debt. Last night we added $330,000,000,000 to the national debt with new spending programs.At best, we have no plan for ever repaying that money; at worst, we have no intention to ever pay it back.

“Borrowing” money without intending to ever pay it back is not debt. It is theft. It is what we have been doing for too long in Washington. And instead of turning the tide last night, we continued our lazy ride toward inevitable financial ruin.

The President lauded the deal as a “balanced approach.” To me, a balanced approach means 1) more revenue and 2) less spending. The fact that the President, or indeed, for that matter, anyone, considers more revenue and more spending to be “balanced” – is truly frightening. If that is the “balance” the President wants, I want none of it.

Yes, the agreement locks in the current tax rates for many Americans. It also provided a welcomed fix to the Alternative Minimum Tax, and very real improvements in the Death Tax provisions. And I understand why many of my colleagues found those provisions to be attractive. Indeed, if this bill had been just about the taxes, I may well have been able to support it. However, “trading” increased spending and deficits for lower taxes is not a plan for compromise, it is a formula for economic collapse.

Also lost in the flurry of excitement over averting the fiscal cliff have been the literally dozens of special interest tax carve-outs for everything from wind energy to Hollywood movie production. Crony capitalism, it seems, is alive and well in Washington.

This is wrong. It has to stop. We are spending ourselves into national decline. We had a chance last night to stop that, even if just for a bit. We failed. And by doing so, we failed the country.“